Sore Hocks & Urine Scald

Question
QUESTION: Hi,

I have an un-neutered male two and a half year old Holland lop. I recently switched him over to a new cage. His old cage has a wire bottom where his pee & poop could fall through. His new cage has a plastic bottom and I put a litter box in the corner.

Unfortunately, he did not use the litterbox and now has urine scalds (I think). His fur is constantly yellow, he always smells like pee, there are small scabs on his testicles and the fur on his feet is falling off. I think he also has sore hocks since it is red and scabby looking.

I've washed him several times, but he just keeps dirtying himself. I don't want to stress him out with too many baths but I don't want him to remain dirty either. I've switched him back to his wire cage, but I suspect it hurts his feet since now he was sore hocks (he never had them before).

When I poke one of his feet lightly with my finger, he curls his feet up. This doesn't happen for the other foot.

Can you please tell me how I can treat him at home for his urine scalds and sock hores? Now he just pees everywhere, he use to be potty trained in his old cage to pee in the corner. He now just pees anywhere in his cage and anywhere when he's out of the cage. He also won't move after he pees and just sits there on top of his urine (dirtying himself).

I've tried putting him in his new plastic cage with bedding, but he just pees everywhere, making it soggy and getting himself (and his poor feet) wet.

He still eats and drinks normally and runs when he feels like it. He isn't as playful as a few weeks ago, but he isn't lethargic. He still loves treats and will beg for them, but doesn't follow me around anymore like he use to. I miss my old bunny and I want him back :(

I would take him to the vet but my family is struggling financially. We are trying to put my sister through college and I hope you will understand that I do not want to risk the education of my family member to take my rabbit to a vet, as important as it is. Please let me know what I can do at home--anything I need to put on his feet or any medications I should give him.

Thank you.




ANSWER: Hi,

any solution requires some money, I hope you realize this.  Living things that have problems are going to require aid/changes to fix things.  I can understand the goal you have for your sister, but pets are 100% dependent on you for their care, and you have to be willing to take care of them when they have a medical issue.  You aren't doing them any favors if you have already ruled out you will not take them to the vet when problems arise.  That isn't right.

Look, here's the deal with what he's doing.  He is not neutered.  He is a rabbit hormonally-driven.  You put him in a new cage, he is going to mark it that it's his.  That's the peeing all over.  He's marking it.  Because he isn't neutered, this behavior is going to be excessive.  Because he isn't neutered, he is not a rabbit that is litterpan-trainable.  So your great experiment was destined to fail, and the fact you popped him in a cage without the drainage capability of the old one has now caused the problem you have.

You need to switch him back to the old cage, and put down clean soft cotton towels for him to rest on.  Since he will pee on them, you will need to change them daily, and wash the used ones for use the next day.  However, I would strongly suggest using a better bedding, one that would help to pull moisture away from his sore areas on his hocks, and that is synthetic pet bedding mats from a pet supply store or online.  Since you have the internet you could also google "Palace Pet Bedding" and order a number (more than one) of mats directly so that you can swap them out daily and clean the soiled one, while giving his hocks a chance to heal.  You can get a mat that is larger than his cage and trim it to fit, you might even be able to make two mats out of one mat if you get one large enough.

The second part is putting bag balm on his hocks, several times a day.  You can also put Preparation H (just regular Prep H) on his legs several times a day.  His skin needs help to heal.  If you find you are at a point it's pretty much healed but there are now bald spots on the legs that fur doesn't grow anymore, you will need to put "New Skin" on those bare areas to help protect them from irritation and the chance for infection to grow and threaten the whole leg.

Now, here's the issue.  Unless this rabbit is neutered, this problem will always exist for you, just so you know.  He will never be litterpan trainable, you can't ever try putting him in a solid bottom cage.  The real long term solution is getting him neutered by a good rabbit vet.  It is also important for you to know, right now, where a good rabbit vet is in your area, in case there is a real emergency and you have to get him there.  Start here:

www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

to find a House Rabbit Society recommended vet near you.  Vets often will set up payment plans and such in order to give care to an animal in an emergency.  They love animals too and don't want to see them denied needed care because a person can't pay the full bill at once.

Bottom line, you still have to be responsible for him, and part of that responsibility is budgeting for vet care.  They are like dogs and cats in terms of care needs.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello,

Thank you for your prompt response and tips. I've bought a lot of puppy training pads and have placed them inside his wire cage. I also have Carefresh Bedding, should I put him in his plastic bottom cage with a lot of bedding or just the wire cage with the training pads/Palace Pet Bedding (after I buy some).

This is the Bag Balm you are talking about right? http://www.walgreens.com/store/catalog/Antiseptics/Ointment/ID=prod10744&navCoun

And this is the Preparation H right? http://www.walgreens.com/store/catalog/Pain-and-Sleep/Hemorrhoidal-Ointment/ID=p

What is "New Skin"? Is is this band-aid? http://www.walgreens.com/store/catalog/Bandaging/First-Aid-Antiseptic-Liquid-Ban

Do you recommend trying to heal his sores/burns first and then neutering him or should I neuter him first and then try and heal him? I'm saving up for his operation right now.

Thank you so much for your help and I look forward to your reply!

Answer
Hi,

best thing right now is get him out of the new cage, back in the old, and give him something soft to rest on and absorb some of his urine when he goes.  Then just change them out daily so he's not resting on them for long periods of time.

Yes, the bag balm and prep h ointment you list are the ones I'm talking about.  The New Skin is a liquid bandage.  Here's the Walgrees product id: http://aarp.walgreens.com/store/store/product/product_details.jsp?id=prod351961

The Prep H and bag balm will help heal the skin if it is irritated.  You can use one in the morning, one in the evening.  Once the irritation and such appear to be pretty much over (his normal skin will be pink but not appear inflamed or irritated), if his fur doesn't grow back, then every couple days you might want to apply the New Skin to those bare areas just to protect and help the skin remain irritation-free.  So New Skin, you may not have to buy right now, but later on, when the bag balm and prep h have healed the skin.  You don't want to use New Skin if his skin is cracked or bleeding, it will be too painful for him.  You'd have to use Prep H and bag balm then.

I'd recommend getting his legs healed up first.  Or trying to, anyway.  Before a procedure like neutering, all vets do a prior exam of the rabbit (a separate visit about a week beforehand) to make sure the animal is healthy for surgery and there won't be any complications.  They will not operate on sick animals, for example, but would say "here's the meds and care he needs, get him well before we can operate".  If the hocks aren't getting better by the time you want to go in for the neutering, the vet may have better creams or other suggestions to help the healing process.

And once his legs are healed, and he's in the old cage, and if he has any bare spots on his back hocks, you'll be putting New Skin on them and he should be okay.  You should observe him and see if there is a particular corner of the cage he tends to use for a bathroom, and leave that area open (not covered by bedding).  After he is neutered, about 6 weeks or so max, you can try to put a litterpan in that corner he uses most often for a bathroom (ie pees there the most, drops fecal pellets there the most), and he will begin most likely to start using the litterpan as his bathroom and tend to mark in other spots a lot less.  Once you see this behavior his bedding will be able to be changed at longer intervals as he won't be hormonally driven to excessively mark his territory.  He'll probably wind up dropping a few fecal pellets once in awhile, but almost do no more urinating outside of his litterpan.

Give him a decent sized litterpan when you do.  Bigger is better, a regular rectangular cat litterpan size is a good size.  If he's a bigger bunny a larger cat litterpan may be better.  For litterpan bedding, the safest and most economical (far more than carefresh) is: hardwood wood stove fuel pellets.  They come in a 40 pound bag, and they are safe and you can easily see what part of them you have to remove so you're not throwing away still good litter, and the best thing is that a 40 pound bag of these that can last you easily 2-3 months costs only $5-6 dollars.  They are easy to find at Home Depots or other home supply stores.  If they only stock them seasonally you can easily pick up 5-6 bags at a time (in a car or truck) and you've got your whole year suppply of litter for $30 some dollars.  Lot better than carefresh.  And they are environmentally friendly and if he eats one of them it's okay for him.  They just break down into sawdust when wet, so it's real easy to scoop out the wet area, and refill with a little fresh wood stove pellets, and then once a week, dump the remaining good pellets into a clean litterpan and clean the dirty one.  Then swap pans every week so they get cleaned every week.